Smoke is unique in facilitating the germination of over 400 native Australian species and a wide range of species from the Mediterranean basin, California, South Africa and Chile (for a review see Brown and Van Staden (1997)). Facilitating the germination of plants is important in a range of fields, including biodiversity conservation, horticulture, agriculture and land restoration. However, existing uses of smoke to facilitate germination require the use of crude or semi-purified smoke. Crude or semi-purified smoke is difficult to handle, potentially toxic at high levels, messy to produce, difficult to reproduce and unable to be produced at sufficient levels to enable cost-effective broad scale use.
Unsurprisingly then, efforts have been made to identify the compound or compounds in smoke responsible for its germination activity. A detailed study by Baldwin et al. (1994) identified 71 compounds in germination promoting fractions of smoke and tested a total of 233 compounds, none of which significantly promoted the germination of Nicotiana attenuata. Van Staden et al. (1995) identified 12 compounds through bioassay-guided fractionation of smoke extracts from Passerina vulgaris and Themeda triandra. They found 7 compounds common to both extracts, 4 of which were available commercially, though found to be inactive. Dixon et al. (1996) identified a suite of compounds through bioassay-guided fractionation of cellulose smoke water and plant-derived smoke water. Testing of available compounds, revealed a further 20 compounds not to be active.
Thus, to this point, it has not been possible to emulate the germination activity of smoke in a convenient or broadly applicable manner.